Guns Kill People

The US had yet another banner week of mass killings. Yeah, yeah, I know the old argument - “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” I am assuming that hogwash only flies with those who refuse to think for themselves and those whose personal or financial interests are tied to making these weapons easily available to all.

Yes, people kill people. It happens everyday - both directly and indirectly. We’re killing on a mass scale with our foreign policies that dehumanize everyone who does not look like us, worship like us, or covet the dollar like us. To keep our economy chugging along, we justify raping foreign lands, making them unliveable, and then we label the people we have displaced as security threats, denying them sanctuary when they flee their homeland that we helped destroy. Yes, people kill people but they do it much more quickly and efficiently when they have easy access to a gun.

People are going to kill. It happens. We cannot stop a person from killing if they are committed to a course of action. It is impossible to control people’s actions. What is not impossible to control is easy access to guns. Take away easy access and, while you will not stop people from killing, you will reduce the speed and efficiency of their kills.

Thoughts and prayers are fine but smarter gun legislation is better.

“If guns don't kill people, why do mass killers arm themselves with guns?” - DaShanne Stokes (b. 1978)